Richard Hammond and Katie Piper have heaped praise on the NHS staff who saved their lives.

The pair were proud to present one of the gongs at the first ever NHS Heroes Awards - which air on ITV at 8.30pm tonight (Monday) - and took time to thank the doctors and nurses who'd cared for them when they needed them most.

They've both been in emergency life-threatening situations before.

Katie , 34, suffered terrible burns in 2008 when her ex-boyfriend arranged for sulphuric acid to be thrown in her face in a horrific attack that left her blind in one eye.

Katie arrives at the awards (Image: Flynet Pictures)

Richard was there with wife Mindy (Image: Flynet Pictures)

The Grand Tour star Richard, 48, was involved in a horrifying car crash in 2006.

While filming Top Gear, he was driving a jet-powered car at 288mph when he crashed and was left in a coma.

Then last year, he was involved in another horror crash that almost killed him.

He said he thought he was going to die when a £2 million electric supercar he was driving hurtled off a hill, spun through the air and burst into flames.

Katie looked gorgeous (Image: Flynet Pictures)

Richard spoke highly of his own experiences with the NHS (Image: Splash News)

Richard has been involved in two bad car accidents (Image: Flynet Pictures)

Speaking exclusively to Mirror Online at the NHS Heroes Awards, Katie said: "I've been a patient myself, and annoyingly still am a patient in the burns service, but also I've had two children on the NHS and it's wonderful, and giving out the awards really just remind us how selfless the people are.

"You know, it's not just a job for them, they go above and beyond their job role and they're passionate about what they do, and what they do do is they save lives, and it's just wonderful."

Richard added: "Yeah and every time I have any sort of encounter with hospital, and I'm sure it's the same for [Katie], whether it's me staying in there because I've done something stupid again, or I'm visiting my friends, wife, family, whatever, every time it's the same thought, I can't imagine having the compassion, the courage, the strength of character to do what they do, whatever their job is with the NHS, to do that every day.

Katie survived a horrific acid attack (Image: Splash News)

They praised the courageous work of the NHS (Image: Splash News)

"Because we go in and we have our little crisis, or whatever, and that's intensely scary for a while but then it's over and I leave, but they go straight back in the next day and go through it again with somebody else, and it's that ability.

"Somebody used the phrase this evening, to love a stranger, which is what it is."